A squall line moves quickly across the Newport River toward Bogue Banks and Onslow Bay in Carteret County Saturday afternoon, when the National Weather Service says the high in the Newport-Morehead City area reached 93. Temperatures Sunday and Monday were cooler, in the mid- to upper-80s, but highs in the 90s are forecast to return later this week, and fall begins in two weeks. Photo: Dylan Ray
storms
Recent rains help but heat has amplified long-dry conditions
“Heat Wave,” “The Heat is On,” “Burning for You”: Song titles that may suit the sweltering summer that has left most of coastal North Carolina parched, and the state climatologist says the rainfall deficits much of the state is seeing began in August 2025.
Stein signs budget with safe water provisions, new ferry tolls
Gov. Josh Stein signed the $34.4 billion spending plan featuring coastal environmental spending and policy provisions, and new tolls on state ferries that have long been free to ride.
Serving public a passion for State Climatologist Jared Bowden
“I’m trying to help the public with their problems related to climate,” says Dr. Jared Bowden, a Rocky Mount native who became director of the North Carolina State Climate Office early this month.
Don’t get complacent with tropical outlook; ‘it only takes one’
Forecasters are calling for a below-normal season for hurricane activity in the Atlantic this year, but they warn, chances still call for as many as 14 named storms with as many as three major hurricanes.
It’s vital to cut spotted seatrout season short after cold snaps
Season closures after cold-stun or cold-kill events, such as seen earlier this month on the North Carolina coast, are important to help fish stocks recover.
Causey urges council to help Outer Banks as more homes fall
“There’s some angry people out there,” Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey told members of the Council of State Tuesday, referring to the four houses that fell into the ocean last weekend, a total of 31 homes since 2020, and calls to end the ban on beach hardening.
Winter storm takes 4 Buxton houses, leaves inches of snow
The weekend storm that covered North Carolina with more than a foot of snow in some places caused four unoccupied Buxton houses to collapse in about 24 hours on Cape Hatteras National Seashore beaches.
Despite judge’s order, communities in 20 states still waiting
Coastal communities in line for announced federal storm resilience funding, which the administration pulled last year and that a judge last month ordered immediately and, permanently restored, are still wondering when the money will come.
NOAA storm prediction modeling in midst of major update
National precipitation forecasting has for decades been hamstrung by static and inadequate climate models, but new tools are in development to provide more accurate rainfall predictions.
Partnership to test living shorelines on two Cape Fear islands
An effort to protect threatened wading bird colonies and their imperiled habitat on Battery and Shellbed islands, Audubon, Sandbar Oyster Co. and the North Carolina Coastal Federation have teamed up to design and install two pilot projects and test their effectiveness.
Coastal storm brings ocean overwash, erosion to NC beaches
The nor’easter that swept up the East Coast last weekend continues to cause headaches along areas of the Outer Banks, where road crews continue to work to reopen portions of N.C. 12.
‘Messy situation’: Buxton beach closed after 8th house falls
The first home fell two weeks ago, but the spate of collapses this week has turned this Cape Hatteras National Seashore beach and the crashing surf into a hazardous, dynamic debris field.
Updated: 7th Buxton house collapses, officials advise caution
New: Another unoccupied house in Buxton collapsed Wednesday evening, bringing the total to seven this week, and the National Park Services warns visitors of potentially hazardous debris may spread for miles.
Distant storms churn up surf along NC coast
Storm swell associated with Hurricane Imelda and Hurricane Humberto breaks Tuesday along the Bogue Banks shore at Oceanana Fishing Pier in Atlantic Beach. The storm, while moving away from the U.S. Tuesday, still packed a potent punch, forecasters said, and could bring possible minor flooding in areas of onshore winds along the coast in the Southeast. At 11 a.m. Tuesday, the storm was moving to the northeast, toward near Bermuda, but swells and high surf from Imelda and Hurricane Humberto were expected to produce dangerous marine conditions and rip currents along much of the East Coast for several days. Farther north, the N.C. Department of Transportation on Tuesday closed N.C. 12 on the north end of Ocracoke Island between the National Park Service Pony Pens and the ferry terminal due to deteriorating travel conditions and five oceanfront houses collapsed on Hatteras Island. Photo: Dylan Ray
Docks event celebrates Hatteras Islanders’ spirit, watermen
The annual event set for Sept. 19-20 celebrates the heroes of Hurricane Isabel in 2003, the commercial fishing and charter operators who restarted the economy after the storm.
